Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 568 Laying Out Hungary

Under the world's watchful eyes, the League of Nations forces completed their assembly in Romania. After a brief rest, they marched in a mighty force toward Russia in northern Romania.

To legitimize the intervention, the League of Nations secured Russia's support, with the Russian government providing supplies to the coalition as strong evidence of its backing.

It goes without saying which side the intervention war was aimed at. This time, the international coalition's offensive target was Ukraine in northern Romania, where the Tsarist Russian army and the Soviet Russian army were locked in fierce fighting. The main objective of the international coalition was to expel the Soviet Russian army from Ukraine.

Although it was clearly aimed at Soviet Russia, the fact that the international coalition forces entered Russian territory could not be changed by Soviet Russia's strong opposition to the intervention, given that the League of Nations had the support of most countries.

Although the international coalition was jointly formed by more than ten countries, the core component of the coalition was still the 100,000 troops each provided by the four major powers.

With 40 troops from the great powers leading the charge, the international coalition's offensive proceeded very smoothly. Tsarist Russia, with the help of the coalition, also reoccupied most of Ukraine. Even though Soviet Russia mobilized a large number of troops for a counter-offensive, it could not stop the coalition's advance.

Seeing that the situation at the front was deteriorating and unable to change the situation, Soviet Russia came up with a new plan.

While the international coalition forces in Ukraine are difficult to eliminate quickly, Soviet Russia can still cause them some trouble in their rear areas.

Although the situation in Europe tended towards peace after the World War, there were still many turbulent events under the general atmosphere of peace.

The situation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire was attracting considerable attention. On one hand, the aging Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was maintaining national unity, was critically ill; on the other hand, the Hungarian government was dissatisfied with the different positions Hungary and Austria were in during the peace negotiations, and had even begun to harbor hatred towards the Austrian government.

The World War was clearly instigated by the old emperor and the Austrian government at the time, but it was Hungary that bore the responsibility for participating in the World War.

Austria did not suffer much territorial loss. Today, Austria still controls its mainland and Czechoslovakia, and is one of Europe's leading industrial and economic powers.

Looking at Hungary, after losing large swathes of Transylvania and the Hungarian Plain, its current territory is less than one-third of what it once was.

From the perspective of the Hungarian government and the Hungarian people, Hungary paid too much for this world war, providing the Austrian government with a large amount of food during the war and mobilizing a large number of troops for the empire.

Hungarians suffered heavy casualties in the World Wars, but in return, large swathes of their territory were carved up by foreign powers.

This outcome was clearly unacceptable to the Hungarian government, leading to widespread discontent among Hungarians and even hatred towards Austrians.

There is only one reason why Hungary has not yet gained independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Emperor Franz Joseph I is still alive.

Although many Hungarians, from the government to the general public, were dissatisfied with Austria, Franz Joseph I was still able to stabilize the situation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire thanks to his immense prestige and influence.

But this is not good news. When the unity of a country is entirely tied to one person, it means that the country is not far from disintegration.

Franz Joseph I certainly possessed unparalleled prestige, but this emperor, born in 1830, was already 85 years old this year.

With Franz Joseph I critically ill, both the Austrian and Hungarian governments clearly recognized that the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not far off.

If the empire has a highly respected successor, it might be able to continue to mend this nation that is on the verge of collapse.

Unfortunately, the crown prince carefully groomed by Franz Joseph I died in a suicide pact. Although the current crown prince, Archduke Ferdinand, has a certain prestige, his political actions are not popular, at least not among the Hungarian people.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Countess Sophie Schottek, were married in a marriage between nobles and commoners, which meant that their descendants would not have the right to inherit the Austro-Hungarian throne.

On this basis, Archduke Ferdinand also advocated stopping the granting of privileges to Hungarians, a proposal that aroused strong dissatisfaction among Hungarians towards Archduke Ferdinand.

At a time when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was about to begin its imperial succession, the fact that the crown prince faced such a predicament was like a bolt from the blue for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This has led to turmoil within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although it maintains a facade of unity, both sides are actually preparing for war.

Soviet Russia's retaliation was to push for Hungary's independence and the establishment of a new republic in the Balkans, led by a Soviet regime.

If this had happened before the World War, Soviet Russia's plan would likely not have succeeded. Hungary's presence in modern history is not strong, but since its establishment, Hungary has been a monarchy, and the voices of those supporting a republic are not very loud.

It wasn't until after the World Wars that a small number of Hungarians began to feel dissatisfied with the monarchy. Franz Joseph I was nominally the monarch of Hungary, but the old emperor's considerations were mostly based on the Austrian Empire, and he rarely took Hungary's interests into account.

This discriminatory treatment disheartened many Hungarians and successfully amplified the voices supporting the republic. Soviet Russia seized this opportunity and quickly stirred up considerable controversy within Hungary.

When Carlo learned that large-scale demonstrations had broken out in Hungary, with many workers and farmers taking to the streets in hopes that the government would overthrow the union with Austria and establish a new, independent, and republican Hungary, Carlo was not worried about the situation in Europe; on the contrary, he was relieved.

Although Soviet Russia's plans for Hungary appeared secretive, they were actually orchestrated by Spanish intelligence.

To be precise, it was Carlo and Franz Joseph together who pushed for Hungary's independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The reason why Emperor Franz Joseph I was willing to allow Hungary to become independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was that he saw the irreconcilable contradictions between Austria and Hungary.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was very powerful at its peak, such a dualistic empire was not good news for the country.

Even more critically, the southern Germans, or Austrians, did not constitute the majority of the Austro-Hungarian population.

With an imbalance in the proportion of the dominant ethnic group, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was able to maintain its unity mainly by relying on its past glory and the personal prestige of Franz Joseph I.

Even a fool could see that when Emperor Franz Joseph I died, and when the devastating defeat in World War II completely extinguished the lingering glory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the unification of the country was destined to collapse, and the irreconcilable contradictions between Hungary and Austria were destined to erupt, possibly even escalating into a civil war.

After Austria-Hungary withdrew from the war through peace negotiations, Carlo sent a diplomatic representative to Austria-Hungary to speak with Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Kalló proposed a plan that would preserve Austria's core interests while preventing the complete disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: to use a series of means to force Hungary to become independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, thus preserving the core interests of present-day Austria and Czechoslovakia.

This move was a huge loss for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was equivalent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire completely losing Hungary and all the land in the Balkans, becoming a truly landlocked country.

However, there were also advantages. It led to Hungary's independence, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire reverted to the Austrian Empire. Although it lost all its coastlines, the Austrian Empire still possessed formidable industrial and military strength by preserving Austria and Czechoslovakia.

While most of Austria is mountainous, the Czech Republic has a considerable area of ​​plains that provided crucial food production for the Austrian Empire.

Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia all possess abundant mineral reserves, which means that the future Austrian Empire still has considerable development potential and should have no problem maintaining its position as a great power.

Although Emperor Franz Joseph I was in very poor health, fortunately his mind was not confused.

Although such a plan seems quite risky, it is actually worth trying if it can successfully achieve Hungary's independence without affecting other parts of Austria.

The old emperor was well aware of Austria's situation after his death, and if he did not take a gamble now, the Austro-Hungarian Empire might very well disintegrate.

After secret discussions with several of his confidants, Emperor Franz Joseph I finally agreed to Carlo's plan and decided to secretly push for Hungarian independence in order to preserve the remaining Austrian base.

Of course, Franz Joseph I did not have no demands.

The Austrian Empire suffered a severe loss of overall strength after completely losing Hungary. In the short term, it might not even be as strong as Italy, and it might be surpassed by the newly rising country in the Far East, falling from its position as a great power.

Under such circumstances, the Austrian Empire needed a strong ally to ensure that Austria had a golden period of development and strive to return to the ranks of the great powers within the next few years to decades.

Given the marriage alliance between the Austrian and Spanish royal families, Franz Joseph I considered Spain a very good ally.

Emperor Franz Joseph I hoped to sign an alliance with Spain, engage in closer economic and cultural exchanges, and ensure that Austria, having lost Hungary, would not lack food, which was crucial for its post-war development.

Carlo naturally wouldn't refuse the request from the old Emperor Franz Joseph I.

With the agricultural development of Spain's West African colonies nearing completion, and with Spain's annual grain production increasing, Spain indeed needed additional markets to dump the large quantities of industrial and agricultural products it produced each year.

The good news is that the World War severely damaged industrial and agricultural production in European countries. Even though France and Germany possessed vast plains, with so many deaths and injuries, it would not be easy for food production to recover to pre-war levels.

During this period, Spain could conveniently sell its grain to countries with insufficient grain production, seize the grain market in advance, and use the economy to extend Spain's influence throughout Europe.

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(End of this chapter)